Ana Ivanovic(Serbia) Biography

With her sultry Slavic looks the "Serbian Siren" has been dubbed by the press "The most beautiful player in the history of tennis."

Ana Ivonavic was born in Belgrade, Serbia on November 6 1987 and she decided when she got her first racket when she was five years-old she wanted to be a professional tennis player. She still has that racket which she keeps in her bedroom.

She is supremely intelligent, studying for a finance degree by correspondence and reading Freudian psychology for fun. She is also very superstitious and has her own little rituals.

She avoids stepping on the lines on court and wears certain outfits. If she finds a coin during a tournament she keeps it for luck.

During her French Open win in 2008 Ivanovic and her team ate at the same restaurant the night before her matches and at the Australian Open earlier that year she went to the same juice bar every morning.

She owns a house on the Island of Mallorca and she likes to chill out there with her boyfriend, Australian golfer Adam Scott.

Her early life in Belgrade would make a great blockbuster film. She learnt her tennis during the NATO bombing campaign against Slobodan Milosevic's murderous regime in 1999 and coaching sessions had to be timed to avoid the terrifying raids. During these raids she would have to join her family in the cellar for safety.

When she was visiting her grandmother one day a shell destroyed a building nearby. Even after the campaign was over life was very difficult in Serbia for the young tennis player. She had to queue for hours to get a visa so that she could compete in overseas tournaments. The only alternative was to travel to Hungary by bus and get a flight from there.

As a child she also used to practice in a drained swimming pool. The April II Sports Centre had an Olympic size pool but it was too expensive to heat the water in the pool so they put in carpeted tennis courts.

Things were still difficult in Serbia at that time and her parents could not afford the money to send their daughter on the World Junior Circuit. But thanks to generous sponsorship she was able to go to Basel in Switzerland for her coaching and she still lives there today.